Joseph Kraft etr3r3/36/ Feigning Business as Usual

Suppose they called a Cabinet meet- ing and nobody came? Well, smart guy, that isn't so funny; last week it almost, State, was returning from Moscow. happened. How about national security and the The three senior departmental volunteer army and troops in Europe? chiefs and two lesser fry were absent Did they talk about that? Well, no. from the session which President -Secretary of Defense James Schle- Nixon held last Thursday. And that singer couldn't come to the Cabinet says a lot about how the shadow of meeting because he had previously Impeachment affects the way Wash- scheduled a press conference. ington works these days. ::Okay. So Shultz and Kissinger and Normally Cabinet meetings are Schlesinger . have special responsi- Called to bear public witness that the bilities. But the rest of the Cabinet President is on the stick, tending to is working as a team, isn't it? the national business in an orderly Sure. Only Atty. Gen. William Saxbe way. That was particularly the idea ,had to go to Quantico to address a behind the meeting set for last Thurs- graduating class at the FBI academy; day. Besides the Cabinet meeting, Mr. And Secretary of Transportation Nixon had a morning marked by ab- ,•Claude Brinegar had to be in Mexico solute routine. 'for what an aide called some kind of "'international conclave." "He announced the appointment of --Well, the President could have a new Chief of Naval Operations and :briefed the Cabinet on the economy the expansion of his Committee on and national security himself, couldn't Mental Retardation. He met with the 'he? Maybe. But there's a lot of evi- new American ambassador to Mauri- dence that the President really isn't tius, with a departing White House aide, and with a Republican woman worker from Houston, Tex.—one Mrs. Martin Erck. • It would be hard to imagine a "Schedule more perfectly calculated to convey the assurance of business going an as usual, unaffected by the brou- baha about Watergate. Just in case anybody had any doubts, the White doing worse than most Ileuse press spokesman, Gerald War- ren, said that the Cabinet did not of the other industrialized nations in discuss Watergate or impeachment. "it would be lard the fight to curb rising prices. So what did they discuss? Well, At the same Chicago meeting he according to Mr. Warren, there was a to imagine a schedule said that "we have had SALT I and -general discussion of the President's SALT II and we will have SALT III piogratn, The Secretary of Commerce, More perfectly calculated in our meetings • with the Soviet Fred Dent, talked about the trade bill. leaders this year!" In fact, only the The Secretary of Health, Education to convey, the assurance first round of talks on the Strategic and Welfare, , Arms Limitation Treaty has been talked about the new comprehensive of business going on completed. SALT II is up for disci's- health insurance ' prOgram. He also sion this year and SALT III is not rapped a little about the new welfare as usual . . ." even in the picture. reform package which his department is preparing. But if Mr. Nixon's isn't concentrat- ....Finally another Cabinet member ing on the economy and foreign policy mentioned with approval the Presi- and defense, what does concern him? all that clued-in on what Secretaries Well, the truth is that he's concerned dent's statement the night before, that Shultz and Kissinger and Schlesinger —and rightly concerned—about just the 1974 elections would be decided by have been doing. "peace and prosperity!' Mr. Warren what the Cabinet meeting was sup- said that the Cabinet registered gen- For example, in an appearance in posed to gloss over. He's worried about eral agreement with that proposition. Chicago on March 15, Mr. Nixon impeachment. He's fighting sarvivaL Well, how about the economy? asserted that inflation "plagues us but which is why he has left all the main `Didn't they talk about that? As a plagues the rest of the world even business of state to his senior Cabinet matter of fact, no. , the more." Apparently he was unaware associates. 'Secretary of the Treasury, was in Chile that the latest numbers showed the 1974, Field Dan:wises, Inc. -attending a meeting of the Inter- 'American Development Bank. How about the Mideast and rela- tions with the Soviet Union? Well, no. , the Secretary of